Heaven

by Randy Alcorn

  What does this mean in terms of human freedom? Some people suggest our free choice is a temporary condition for the present life and won't charac­terize us in Heaven. But it seems to me that the capacity to choose is part of what makes us human. It's hard to believe God would be pleased by our wor­ship if we had no choice but to offer it. It's one thing for him to enable us to worship. It's another for him to force us to do so or to make it automatic and involuntary. Christ woos his bride; he doesn't "fix" her so she has no choice but to love him.

  Imagine a husband who desires his wife's love, and to ensure that love, he in­jects her with a chemical to remove her free will, to make her love him. This is not love; it is coercion. Once we become what the sovereign God has made us to be in Christ and once we see him as he is, then we'll see all things—including sin—for what they are. God won't need to restrain us from it. Sin will have ab­solutely no appeal. It will be, literally, unthinkable.

  The inability to sin doesn't inherently violate free will. My inability to be God, an angel, a rabbit, or a flower is not a violation of my free will. It's the sim­ple reality of my nature. The new nature that'll be ours in Heaven—the righ­teousness of Christ—is a nature that cannot sin, any more than a diamond can be soft or blue can be red. God cannot sin, yet no being has greater free choice than God does.

  Theologian Paul Helm says, "The freedom of heaven, then, is the freedom from sin; not that the believer just happens to be free from sin, but that he is so constituted or reconstituted that he cannot sin. He doesn't want to sin, and he does not want to want to sin."231

  WILL WE EVER BE TEMPTED?

  Will we be tempted to turn our backs on Christ? No. What would tempt us?Innocence is the absence of something (sin), while righteousness is the presence of something (God's holiness). God will never withdraw from us his holiness; therefore we cannot sin.

  We'll never forget the ugliness of sin. People who've experienced severe burns aren't tempted to walk into a bonfire. Having known death and life, we who will experience life will never want to go back to death. We'll never be de­ceived into thinking God is withholding something good from us or that sin is in our best interests.

  Satan won't have any access to us. But even if he did, we wouldn't be tempted. We'll know not only what righteousness is but also what sin is—or was. We'll always know sin's costs. Every time we see the scarred hands of King Jesus, we'll remember. We'll see sin as God does. It will be stripped of its illu­sions and will be utterly unappealing.

  Because our hearts will be pure and we'll see people as they truly are, every relationship in Heaven will be pure. We'll all be faithful to the love of our life: King Jesus. We couldn't do anything behind his back even if we wanted to. But we'll never want to.

  We'll love everyone, men and women, but we'll be in love only with Jesus. We'll never be tempted to degrade, use, or idolize each other. We'll never believe the outrageous lie that our deepest needs can be met in any person but Jesus.

  Often we act as if the universe revolves around us. We have to remind our­selves it's all about Christ, not us. In Heaven we'll see reality as it is and will, therefore, never have to correct our thinking. This will be Heaven's Copernican revolution—a paradigm shift in which we'll never again see ourselves as our center of gravity. Jesus Christ will be our undisputed center, and we won't want it any other way.

  WILL WE REALLY BE PERFECT?

  Someone e-mailed me this question: "In Heaven, will some people still be an­noying? After all, eternity's a long time!" Annoyance is sometimes caused by others' sin, our own, or both. Since sin will be eliminated, so will annoyance. That doesn't mean people won't have idiosyncrasies, only that they won't be rooted in sin, and none of us will degrade or dismiss others.

  Jonathan Edwards said, "Even the very best of men, are, on earth, imperfect. But it is not so in heaven. There shall be no pollution or deformity or offensive defect of any kind, seen in any person or thing; but every one shall be perfectly pure, and perfectly lovely in heaven."232

  In Heaven we'll be perfectly human. Adam and Eve were perfectly human until they bent themselves into sinners. Then they lost something that was an original part of their humanity—moral perfection. Since then, under sin's curse, we've been human but never perfectly human.

  We can't remember a time when we weren't sinners. We've always carried sin's baggage. What relief it will be not to have to guard our eyes and our minds. We will not need to defend against pride and lust because there will be none.

  In Heaven we won't just be better than we are now—we'll be better than Adam and Eve were before they fell. Our resurrection bodies may be very much like their bodies were before the Fall, but we'll be a redeemed humanity with knowledge of God, including his grace, far exceeding theirs.

  Of course, Adam and Eve will be with us too, in their resurrection bodies. No one will know better than they what we've missed. They will have lived on the original Earth, the fallen Earth, and the New Earth. (That's why they rank high on my list of people I want to talk with.)

  How great shall be that felicity, which shall be tainted with no evil, which shall lack no good, and which shall afford leisure for the praises of God, who shall be all in all!

  SAINT AUGUSTINE

  In Heaven we'll be perfectly human, but we'll still be finite. Our bodies will be perfect in that they won't be diseased or crippled. But that doesn't mean they won't x have limits.

  The term perfect is often mis­used when it describes our state in Heaven. I've heard it said, for instance, "We'll communicate perfectly, so we'll never be at a loss for words." I disagree. I expect we'll sometimes grasp for words to describe the wondrous things we'll experience. I expect I'll stand in speechless wonder at the glory of God. I'll be morally perfect, but that doesn't mean I'll be capable of doing anything and everything. (Adam and Eve were morally perfect, but that didn't mean they could automatically invent nuclear submarines or defy gravity. They were per­fect yet finite, just as we will be.)

  Someone asked me, "If we're sinless, will we still be human?" Although sin is part of us now, it's not essential to our humanity—in fact, it's foreign to it. It's what twists us and keeps us from being what we once were—and one day will be.

  Our greatest deliverance in Heaven will be from ourselves. Our deceit, corrup­tion, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, hypocrisy—all will be forever gone.

  Theologian and novelist Frederick Buechner anticipates the new "us" on the New Earth: "Everything is gone that ever made Jerusalem, like all cities, torn apart, dangerous, heartbreaking, seamy. You walk the streets in peace now. Small children play unattended in the parks. No stranger goes by whom you can't imagine a fast friend. The city has become what those who loved it always dreamed and what in their dreams she always was. The new Jerusalem. That seems to be the secret of Heaven. The new Chicago, Leningrad, Hiroshima, Beirut. The new bus driver, hot-dog man, seamstress, hairdresser. The new you, me, everybody"233

  WHAT IS OUR HOPE OF LIVING WITHOUT SIN?

  What's the hope we should live for? It's more than freedom from suffering. It's deliverance from sin, freeing us to be fully human. Paul says, "In this hope we were saved" (Romans 8:24). What hope? The words of the previous verse tell us: "the redemption of our bodies" (v. 23). That's the final resurrection, when death will be swallowed up and sin will be reversed, never again to touch us. This is what we should long for and live for. Resurrection will mean many things—including no more sin.

  Is resurrected living in a resurrected world with the resurrected Christ and his resurrected people your daily longing and hope? Is it part of the gospel you share with others? Paul says that the resurrection of the dead is the hope in which we were saved. It will be the glorious climax of God's saving work that began at our regeneration. It will mark the final end of any and all sin that sepa­rates us from God. In liberating us from sin and all its consequences, the resur­rection will free us to live with God, gaze on him, and enjoy his uninterrupted fellowsh
ip forever, with no threat that anything will ever again come between us and him.

  May God preserve us from embracing lesser hopes. May we rejoice as we anticipate the height, depth, length, and breadth of our redemption.

  CHAPTER 32

  WHAT WILL WE KNOW AND LEARN?

  It's common to hear people say, "We don't understand now, but in Heaven we'll know everything." One writer says that people in Heaven can "easily comprehend divine mysteries."234 Is this true? Will we really know everything in Heaven?

  WILL WE KNOW EVERYTHING?

  God alone is omniscient. When we die, we'll see things far more clearly, and we'll know much more than we do now, but we'll never know everything.

  The apostle Paul wrote: "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12, emphasis added). The italicized words are based on two different Greek words: ginosko and epiginosko. The prefix epi inten­sifies the word to mean "to really know" or "to know extensively." However, when the word is used of humans, it never means absolute knowledge.

  In his Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem says, "1 Cor. 13:12 does not say that we will be omniscient or know everything (Paul could have said we will know all things, tapanta, if he had wished to do so), but, rightly translated, sim­ply says that we will know in a fuller or more intensive way, 'even as we have been known,' that is, without any error or misconceptions in our knowledge."235

  The New Living Translation reads, "Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror." Mirrors in Paul's time had serious flaws. Corinth was famous for its bronze mirrors, but the color was off and shapes were distorted. The mir­ror's image lacked the quality of seeing someone face-to-face. Knowing and seeing were nearly synonyms in Greek thought.236 The more you saw, the more you knew.

  One day we'll see God's face and therefore truly know him (Revelation 22:4). Under the Curse we see myopically. When we're resurrected, our vision will be corrected. We'll at last be able to see eternal realities once invisible to us (2 Corinthians 4:18).

  God sees clearly and comprehensively. In Heaven we'll see far more clearly, but we'll never see comprehensively. The point of comparing our knowing to God's knowing is that we'll know "fully" in the sense of accurately but not exhaustively.

  In Heaven we'll be flawless, but not knowing everything isn't a flaw. It's part of being finite. Righteous angels don't know everything, and they long to know more (1 Peter 1:12). They're flawless but finite. We should expect to long for greater knowledge, as angels do. And we'll spend eternity gaining the greater knowledge we'll seek.

  WILL WE LEARN?

  I heard a pastor say, "There will be no more learning in Heaven." One writer says that in Heaven, "Activities such as investigation, comprehending and prob­ing will never be necessary. Our understanding will be complete."237 In a Gallup poll of people's perspectives about Heaven, only 18 percent thought people would grow intellectually in Heaven.238

  Does Scripture indicate that we will learn in Heaven? Yes. Consider Ephesians 2:6-7: "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heav­enly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace." The word show means "to reveal." The phrase in the coming ages clearly indicates this will be a progressive, ongoing revelation, in which we learn more and more about God's grace.

  I frequently learn new things about my wife, daughters, and closest friends, even though I've known them for many years. If I can always be learning some­thing new about finite, limited human beings, surely I'll learn far more about Jesus. None of us will ever begin to exhaust his depths.

  Jesus said to his disciples, "Learn from me" (Matthew 11:29). On the New Earth, we'll have the privilege of sitting at Jesus' feet as Mary did, walking with him over the countryside as his disciples did, always learning from him. In Heaven we'll continually learn new things about God, going ever deeper in our understanding.

  Consider again those Greek words ginosko and epiginosko, translated "know" in 1 Corinthians 13:12, used of our present knowledge on Earth and our future knowledge in Heaven. Ginosko often means "to come to know," and therefore "to learn" (Matthew 10:26; John 12:9; Acts 17:19; Philippians 2:19). Epiginosko also means "to learn" (Luke 7:37; 23:7; Acts 9:30; 22:29).239 That we will one day "know fully" could well be understood as "we will always keep on learning."

  It was God—not Satan—who made us learners. God doesn't want us to stop learning. What he wants to stop is what prevents us from learning.

  Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards, who intensely studied Heaven, be­lieved "the saints will be progressive in knowledge to all eternity."240 He added, "The number of ideas of the saints shall increase to eternity."241

  Will our knowledge and skills vary? Will some people in Heaven have greater knowledge and specialized abilities than others? Why not? Scripture never teaches sameness in Heaven. We will be individuals, each with our own memo­ries and God-given gifts. Some of our knowledge will overlap, but not all. I'm not a mechanic or gardener, as you may be. I may or may not learn those skills on the New Earth. But even if I do, that doesn't mean I'll ever be as skilled a gardener or mechanic as you will be. After all, you had a head start on learning. Remember the doctrine of continuity: What we learn here carries over after death.

  Don't you love to discover something new? On the New Earth, some of our greatest discoveries may relate to the lives we're living right now. Columnist and commentator Paul Harvey made a career of telling "the rest of the story." That's exactly what we'll discover in Heaven again and again—the rest of the story. We'll be stunned to learn how God orchestrated the events of our lives to influ­ence people we may have forgotten about.

  Occasionally we hear stories that provide us a small taste of what we'll learn in eternity. One morning after I spoke at a church, a young woman came up to me and asked, "Do you remember a young man sitting next to you on a plane headed to college? You gave him your novel Deadline." I give away a lot of my books on planes, but after some prompting, I remembered him. He was an un­believer. We talked about Jesus, and I gave him the book and prayed for him as we got off the plane.

  I was amazed when the young woman said to me, "He told me he never con­tacted you, so you wouldn't know what happened. He got to college, checked into the dorm, sat down, and read your book. When he was done, he confessed his sins and gave his life to Jesus. And I can honestly tell you, he's the most dy­namic Christian I've ever met."

  All I did was talk a little, give him a book, and pray for him. But if the young woman hadn't told me, I wouldn't have had a clue what had happened. That story reminded me how many great stories await us in Heaven and how many we may not hear until we've been there a long time. We won't ever know every­thing, and even what we will know, we won't know all at once. We'll be learners, forever. Few things excite me more than that.

  WILL WE EXPERIENCE PROCESS?

  The first humans lived in process, as God ordained them to. Adam knew more a week after he was created than he did on his first day.

  Nothing is wrong with process and the limitations it implies. Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature" (Luke 2:52). Jesus "learned obedience" (Hebrews 5:8). Growing and learning cannot be bad; the sinless Son of God experienced them. They are simply part of being human.

  Unless we cease to be human after our resurrection, we will go on growing and learning. If anything, sin makes us less human. When the parasite of sin is removed, full humanity will be restored—and improved.

  The sense of wonder among Heaven's inhabitants shows Heaven is not stagnant but fresh and stimulating, suggesting an ever-deepening appreciation of God's greatness (Revelation 4-6). Heaven's riches are rooted in Heaven's God. We will find in Heaven a continual progression of stimulating discovery and fresh learning as we keep grasping more of God.

  In Hamlet, Shakespeare called what lies beyond death "the undiscover'd country"242 It's a cou
ntry we yearn to discover—and by Christ's grace, we will. Jonathan Edwards—as fine a theological mind as the world has ever known—defended and developed this thought, which he considered critical. He wrote, "How soon do earthly lovers come to an end of their discoveries of each other's beauty; how soon do they see all there is to be seen! But in Heaven there is eter­nal progress with new beauties always being discovered."243 He continued, "Happiness of heaven is progressive and has various periods in which it has a new and glorious advancement and consists very much in beholding the mani­festations that God makes of himself in the work of redemption."244 Edwards contended that we will continually become happier in Heaven in "a never-ending, ever-increasing discovery of more and more of God's glory with greater and greater joy in him."245 He said there will never be a time when there is "no more glory for the redeemed to discover and enjoy"246 There won't ever "come a time when the union between God and the church is complete" because we will always be learning something new about our Bridegroom.247

  We can anticipate an eternity of growing in Christlikeness as we behold God's face and are continuously "transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18). We can begin this joyful process here and now, and there's every indication it will continue forever.

  After creating the new universe, Jesus says, "I am making everything new!" (Revelation 21:5). Notice the verb tense is not "I have made" or "I will make" but "I am making." This suggests an ongoing process of renovation. Christ is a creator, and his creativity is never exhausted. He will go right on making new things. Heaven is not the end of innovation; it is a new beginning, an eternal break from the stagnancy and inertia of sin.

  WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE TO LEARN?

  Could God impart knowledge so we immediately know things when we get to Heaven? Certainly. Adam and Eve didn't go to school. They were created, it ap­pears, with an initial vocabulary. But Adam and Eve are the exceptions. Every other person has learned by experience and study, over time. And Adam and Eve were learners the rest of their lives. Nothing ever came automatically again.